Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-21

great losses and gains upon slight interior
ences by the Government. All the other
Departments combined of the Federal Gov
eminent cannot equal in importance that
Department, which. fifty years hence, will
superintend the railways. 1t is well to con-
slider these results before the irrevocable
step is taken.
Descending from the plane of the polit-
ical future of the country to the party
politics of the day, an equally remarkable
condition of things meets our view A
Democratic House of Representatives is
supporting bill which is Numerically
opposed to fundamental Democratic prin-
ciples. The leaders of that party in Con-
gress do not know, or do not care for the
principles of the party. They have bent
their necks to the yoke of political ex-
pediency, and think that adroit politics
will do more for their party than far
sighted craftsmanship. They have aband-
oned the Democratic doctrine that the
least-governed people are the best-governed
people, and that rapidly centralizing Gov
eminent is dangerous to the republican in
situations of America. They are advocat-
ing measures that go to the extreme
limit of the principles of government
as advocated by the opposition for
one hundred years. 1t is difficult 10
imagine a more un-Democratic piece of
legislation than this. Had such bill been
presented in the days when Jefferson, or
Madison, or Jackson, or Seymour, or
Tilden guided the party, united Democ-
racy would be found opposed to it. The
mere reading of such bill in Democratic
House of Representatives is enough to
cause the Democratic patriarchs to turn
over in their graves and groan. The pres
ent leaders of that party have abandoned
the faith of their fathers. They are re-
creant to the trust conided in them by
the masses of their party. Perhaps it is
useless, yet it is pertinent here to quote
the words of Mr.. Tilden, the greatest
statesman that the Democratic party has
produced since Jefferson. In 1871, he
said, speaking of the principles Of the
Democratic party Its creed is COM
prised of two ideas, first, to limit as much
as possible all governmental power, en-
larging always and everywhere the domain
of individual judgment and action;
secondly, to throw back the governmental
powers necessary to be exercised as much
as possible upon the States and the locali-
ties, approaching in every case the in
dividuals to be affected. These ideas DOM
mate over the Democratic party, and find
in it their best representatives. The op-
poSite ideas-to NEEDLE with everything
properly belonging to individuals, and to
centralize all government powers-express
the tendencies of the Republican party.
Under their inspiration the Federal Gov
ernment is rapidly seizing upon ali the
powers of human society. 1t has assumed
to regulate the suffrage and threatens to
take the control of all elections. 1t per-
verts the power to raise revenue into
means of debating what kind of business
men shall employ their labor and capital
in, of giving bounties and granting monop-
olies, of enriching favored classes by i'm
poveri3hing the people. 1t has drawn
within its power all the banks, it has be-
gun to create insurance corporations, and
its yearns to take jurisdiction of all the
railroad companies. Its career of usurpa-
ton. if continued few years longer, will
involve all the business, all the contracts,
and all the property of individuals, and
will populate Washington with the Hobbies
of thirty-seven States"